Rocket Scientists Think Cycling is Safe (Enough)

NASA pulls injured shuttle astronaut off flight (Associated Press item)

An astronaut who crashed his bicycle last weekend won't be taking part in space shuttle Discovery's final voyage next month.

. . . . .

To cut down on preflight injuries, NASA has a whole list of prohibited activities for astronauts assigned to space missions. Among the banned high-risk sports: motorcycle riding, skiing, parachuting and acrobatic flying. Bicycling is not on the list.

More Ice on Bike Trails

Taken this morning, on the way to work - looking south although I was heading north - I just liked the sign (note icicles) and it was a place to prop the bike for the photo. Near Route 1 around the south end of Nation Airport. Entire trail covered in ice.

Trails were covered in bumpy ice with temp hovering around freezing. As far as I am concerned, impossible conditions if you don't have studded tires (which this bike does). However I did ride along briefly with a guy who was managing without studded tires - but I was able to go quite a bit faster so I left him behind.

At the overpasses I simply walked the bike for 100 yards or so - the ice was too much on the downhill sides even with the studs.

The trick (with the studded tires) is to ride at a measured pace - no sudden braking, no quick acceleration. Gentle . . . . . easy does it. Where there is trail with grass on both sides, one can get up to 10-12 mph and ride off onto the grass if problems arise. Some of the way I simply road on the icy grass, since then falling is no longer an issue - but it is more exertion but requires less focused attention.

Wouldn't want to ride like this all the time!!

It has certain fun aspects - near Shirlington several people walking their dogs simply gawped - "if I'm falling down with my boots, how can he ride . . . a bike?" is clearly what they are thinking. Well - it's (stud) magic! Ya just gotta be careful not to push the boundaries.

1982 Sirius Bridgestone

As I mentioned in my preceding post I have bought a frame (+ headset + fork + bottom bracket) on Ebay.


The 1982 Bridgestone Sirius as shown in the 1982 Bridgestone bicycle catalog

I am apparently a terrible librarian - I should have done various research before I bought the thing, but instead am doing most of it after. So far, no particularly surprising (unpleasant or otherwise) discoveries.

The bike is double-butted 4130 Chromoly (CrMo) with Tange lugs and Tange headset. The 23 inch (or 56 cm using today's usual metric) size was listed at 23 pounds, which is fairly good. Made in Japan. . . it is the same "Bridgestone" that makes tires for Toyota etc. It was the top of the line for Bridgestone at that time, but that doesn't really mean too much - they were not yet a very serious builder.

Apparently some time not long after Bridgestone made the Sirius (and other spacey-named bike models) a fellow named Grant Petersen started running the Bridgestone bike division and the Bridgestone road bikes produced under his leadership are considered rather special - "Bridgestone bicycles are something of a cult item now" per Sheldon Brown. However he means ones made after the one I just bought. Still, this is a classic Japanese-built steel road frame and should be very nice to ride.

Research on such things is interesting. Sheldon Brown has an entire separate page on the subject of Bridgestone bikes (again, focusing on 1985 forward) as well as digitized Bridgestone bicycle catalogs from 1985 through the 1990s. These digitized catalogs are quite interesting (well, it depends on what turns you on) to look at, but of course the selection generally via the Internet is completely random depending on someone having them and then decided to digitize them. (Many such catalogs, particularly from 1989 on, are in violation of copyright, but one can assume the relevant company wouldn't care, up to a point. The catalogs before 1989 for the US market that aren't marked with (c) or the word "copyright" with a date are probably in the public domain. Maybe.)

At any rate, a simple Google search on "1982 Bridgestone bicycle catalog" brought up a site where someone has the full 1982 catalog in PDF - I'm not going to link to it since it is slow to load; it is over three megs. Very nice to have that, if only to confirm that what I bought in fact is an '82. There is another article about Bridgestone bikes that gives some further background.



The above beautiful randonneering bike was built up on the same frame I purchased (which is available in two color schemes - this is the less gaudy one). It is from a Flickr group devoted to Bridgestone bikes. The randonneering approach with fenders and so on is not the direction I am planning to go in but it is nice to see someone investing that kind of money into this frame.

Building Up a Bike - Getting Started

Having completed the "Park Tool School" (for bike mechanic basics) a while ago I am interested in seeing if I can bring together all the (used) parts of a bicycle, assemble them, and have something ridable. Well, something even fun to ride, actually. I have started by buying a old-ish steel frame on eBay (above). I liked the looks of it, a lugged frame, that includes the bottom bracket and (the thing the pedals attach to) and a fork.

So now I have to acquire all the stuff that bolts to the bike - and make sure I get the right stuff for this frame (where it matters). Much of that is what is known as the "gruppo" or group - gear shifters, brake levers (or integrated brake levers/shifters), brakes, front and rear derailleurs, a bottom bracket, a crankset, a chain, a cogset and a freewheel (or cassette). One small problem is that I already have a bottom bracket but near as I can tell, people selling older groups on eBay often don't include that. It is an interesting puzzle to sort out what would work with this frame (and what won't).

My first puzzle is with crankarm length - that is, how long the arms that have the pedals on them are. (This iscertainly not the only or most important thing to figure out but the one I have bumped into first.) Various lengths are available, but most road bikes come with 170 or 172.5 mm. I believe my two road bikes have 172.5, but I realize I would have to measure - it isn't in the technical details supplied with one of them and the other was rather short on such info generally.

I have already found a detailed bicycle crank length discussion that suggests that the Shimano 105 group I have located with 170 mm cranks would be fine (assuming I can successfully purchase it).

Of course a more reasonable question is why Shimano 105? Hmm...

Winter Commuting & Studded Bike Tires (Again)

So, Tuesday night it snowed again, setting up a slick commute (so to speak) for Wednesday morning, and a bit beyond as it turned out. In an earlier post I said I didn't see much point in studded bike tires, but I realize now I was thinking mostly of heavy snow conditions like we had last winter (where the problem was pushing through snow and not ice at all).

Tuesday's freezing rain followed by an inch or so of snow set up conditions where bike tires with studs are pretty good to have - and since I have a set, I used them (although I took the picture above of some other rider during my commute - the pictures below are of me + the bike).



This is an old Giant that belonged to one of my sons - I have an extra set of wheels that I equipped with some not-very-expensive Nashbar-branded Kenda tires that have studs. They work great in icy conditions. In the image below you can see, if you look closely, some of the studs.



It got up to 38 (F - say +2 C) during the day and it was windy, so much of the snow melted by the time I rode home, but there were enough icy patches that I didn't mind having the studs. Really, it is on icy spots (rather than on snow of any depth) that the studs are amazing - it is possible to proceed at a decent stable pace, say 12-14 mph, and not feel any slipping, although one needs to be sensible - the studs aren't so numerous as to be relied on for quick stops, for example. When traveling on dry clear pavement one can hear them clicking away and I assume getting slowly less pointy (flattened out). If you brake hard on dry pavement you can simply pull individual studs out of the tires.

So Thursday, having decided that mostly the trail was clear, I went back to my cyclocross bike (no studs). I reduced the tire pressure to 50 pounds per square inch but that does zero for grip on ice. Using the cross bike meant lots of speeding up, then slowing down when I had to go over icy areas plus making sure I was paying attention 100 percent of the time so as not to end up on ice at the wrong speed. On the way home on a overpass made of concrete (which thaws much more slowly since the jurisdictions where the bike trails are don't do anything to speed that up), I screwed up and fell, dinging my left shoulder pretty good but not breaking anything. My head hit the left concrete sidewall of the overpass but not too hard and anyway that's what helmets are for, to keep one from getting hurt (and it worked). Nonetheless, OW!

So I'm a little embarrassed, frankly. I could have and I guess should have ridden the "ice bike" with studs one more day in order to avoid this. It would have been 9.5 miles of studs and heavy mountain bike on clear pavement and some 100s of yards on snow and a little slippery, dangerous ice. And I'm pretty sure I would not have fallen ~ hmm. Have to think about this . . .



I should have spent one more day on the studded tire bike.

Advice to the Cyclist - "How to Behave" (in 1896)

Given recent discussions of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and its resolution that cyclists should "do better" I was amused to see that such advice has now been with us for over 100 years.

A small article in the June 28, 1896 issue of The Morning Times (of Washington DC - the article is at the lower left of this full newspaper page) has the following ~

HOW TO BEHAVE - Some Rules Which Wheelers Can Follow Most Implicitly.

The following rules or suggestions for rules have been approved by a number of experienced wheelmen, and will be found to cover the more important questions of conduct on the road.

In the first place, remember that too much care cannot be exercised for the safety of pedestrians as well as wheel people. The carriages, with the assistance of the new lamp ordinance, will be able to lookout for themselves. If you have the misfortune to run down a pedestrian do not hasten away, but stop to give what help you can.

This seems to cover the essential advice, at least comparing our practices today with the advice that follows ~

Never pass by an accident without dismounting and inquiring what the trouble is and whether you can be of any assistance, but remember that any service you may render to a wheelwoman does not entitle you to her aquaintance without the usual formal introduction. It is always proper to speak to a wheelwoman who may be in need or assistance. Humanity requires this.

If you go to the page itself and read the item further, much of the advice relates to how wheelmen should interact with wheelwomen (if they want to do so correctly) rather than avoiding accidents, although there is some further guidance in that department, including the protocol for ringing a bell (and ringing your bell in response, naturally).

Still, there is some good practical advice that hasn't changed ~

Many of the accidents we read of every day could be avoided if the riders would regulate their pace according to their skill in managing the wheel under difficulties.

and

Do not ride in the middle of a path or driveway. You are liable to meet with an accident, and cannot recover for damages to your wheel unless you observe the rules or the rood.

As a bonus, this newspaper page, despite being an image produced from microfilm, has this lovely representation of cyclists traveling from Washington to Baltimore~



And this ~



A final quote ~

Always preserve your dignity and pay no attention to small boys or dogs, both of which are perfectly harmless to the average wheelman.

Metal Crud in Bike Brake Pads

One bike mystery for me is where these little bits of metal come from that regularly get embedded in my brake pads (see above) and cause an unpleasant noise when braking, not to mention less braking action and more rim wear. Are some of these metal flakes from the rim itself? It seems likely, somehow, but also puzzling and troubling - why would that happen?

The above pads are only the second set I have installed on this bike - they are stock Shimano DuraAce/Ultegra pads. (The first set lasted around 4,000 miles - I don't ride in the rain on this bike.) Many folks recommend Kool Stop brake pads rather than Shimano - one forum entry even specified that Kool Stop would reduce this metal-flakes-in-brake-pads problem! So I guess my next set of brake pads will be some of these.

The pocket knife is the device I use for removing the small bits of metal. It may be the easiest bike maintenance task there is, but I don't much care for it.